MP asks, how many facing axe?

Addressing the UNC’s Monday Night Forum meeting at the McBean Hindu primary school in Couva, Indarsingh also asked the labour movement to compare the number of negotiations that had been settled by the ruling PNM government since it took office in 2015. “I want to ask the labour movement of Trinidad and Tobago, how many negotiations have been settled for the 2014-2016 period,” Indarsingh said.

“I want to ask them what is the government’s position as it relates to the 2016- 2019 collective bargaining process,” he said. “I want to ask Minister (Colm) Imbert, how much workers will lose their jobs based on the coming of the Trinidad and Tobago Revenue Authority (TTRA),” he said. “I also want to ask the Minister of Energy and the new parliamentary secretary, based on the report of the restructuring committee, how many workers are destined to lose their jobs at Petrotrin in addition to the 25,000 who have already list their jobs,” he said. “There is a sense of hopelessness in Trinidad and Tobago,” he said.

Indarsingh also observed that two weeks after the passage of Tropical Storm Bret, government had failed to deliver assistance to affected homeowners in south and central Trinidad. Also addressing the meeting was Couva North MP Ramona Ramdial who said the Ministry of Works and Transport had not done any maintenance works on rivers and watercourses in central Trinidad since 2015.

She however reserved her harshest criticism for the Minister of National Security, Edmund Dillion saying crime had been steadily increasing in central Trinidad due to an “absence of leadership” at the Ministry.

“I can tell you that there is no 24 hour joint Army and Police patrols anywhere in central Trinidad,” she said and wondered whether the recent murders of schoolboy Videsh Subar and his caretaker Hafeeza Rose Mohammed would be solved or would it be relegated to “cold case” status.

Meanwhile, Couva/ Tabaquite/Talparo Regional Corporation (CTTRC) deputy chairman Allan “Taxi” Seepersad said his family had not yet come to terms with the murder of his brother Roopnarine “Dar” Seepersad in 2015.“We cannot ketch we self yet,” a sombre Seepersad said, adding, “I does ask myself sometimes in the night why you gone boy and leave your wife and children.”